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<P>June 12, 2005<BR>Rio Rancho, NM</P><B>
<P>TEACHER TOMAS<BR>Lesson on Problem-Solving<BR></B>Effective Power of Prayer
<BR>Understanding Murphy <BR>Q&A: A Decimal Planet<BR>The Quarantined
Worlds</P><B>
<P>Music:</B> "Under His Wings" </P><B>
<P>Prayer:</B> (Elena)</P><I>
<P>Dear Heavenly Father, please help us pray and help us place ourselves in a
position that we can listen to you, that we can hear your words and the words of
your helpers, that can help us understand all of those things around us, and
help us position ourselves to do the best thing that we can at any given moment.
Help us to align ourselves ever and foremost closer to you. We ask these things
in Jesus sweet, precious name. Amen.</P></I><B>
<P>TOMAS: </B>Good afternoon. I am Tomas, your teacher and friend, moved by your
sweetness and affection for one another as has been evidenced in your sharing
and in anticipation of the abundance of affection in you that is even now making
its way into the circuitry of the spirit which consumes us in these soirees into
the dimension of communication intercourse between the spirit realm and the
finite. </P>
<P>This overriding paradigm that we enjoy, and in which we take such comfort,
even gaining strength by the faith which we invest in the process, strengthens
our resolve to go forth into the life, the arena, as it is lived in the material
world, there to nobly comport yourselves as a child of God in service to
humanity, all the while understanding the need to take care of oneself in the
physical sense, and to curtail the depletion of the strength which spirit
provides by disconnecting from this connection we have sought and found within
this Teacher Mission. </P>
<P>The text points to the fact that while the spirit is a goal, the flesh is a
fact. And what a joy to hear you refer to the text in the philosophy of Rodan,
who discusses the nature of problem solving as a means of making this life
easier and more readily manageable -- for certainly your problems are not all
material; they are not all mechanical -- but also bridge the emotional realm, as
well, and abut the morontia level. </P>
<P>Having one foot in the material world and one foot in divine awareness is
helpful toward your integration of the human and divine nature inherent in you
and contributes to your ability to solve the problems of the realm, including
emotional ones, because you are connected to the spirit, and disallows your
tendency to put all your eggs in the material basket and exclude the spirit
reality as something which you have not got yet, as if it were truly off in the
future somewhere, unattainable and impractical, for all intents and purposes.
</P>
<P>While it is true that your full fledged spirit existence is in ages to come,
it would be foolhardy of you to deny the power of the spirit that works in and
with you even now as you go about your affairs and grapple with problem-solving
as it is understood by humanity. </P><B>
<P>Prayer in Problem Solving </P></B>
<P>Prayer is a tool in this process. You have a problem. You want to pray about
it. Many people put their problem on the table and pray about it as if disowning
the problem. Facing problems and dealing with them is the responsibility of the
finite being in the finite world. Even though they may seem overwhelming, or not
your problem, even though you may deny a problem exists, it only gets worse if
you don’t deal with it; it does not go away. And so to pray about it would be to
seek the solution within yourself and within the framework of your life, to seek
the strength to follow through, to seek the humility that would ask for
information or help in addressing the problem. </P>
<P>Prayer would perhaps allow you to think in new terms of how to go about
handling the problem rather than, as is so often the case, doing the same thing
expecting different results, denying the problem exists, or passing the buck to
someone else to fix it. This is true whether it is your personal
problem/challenge or whether it is a group situation, or even now, as you are
beginning to perceive, a global problem. The same truth holds. Rather than allow
fear to paralyze you, pray for the fortitude and honesty it takes to discern
precisely what the problem is.</P>
<P>Now, in terms of politics, we have a lot of finger-wagging at this point, and
make no mistake, all of you are political animals, and so even in your personal
problem-solving it is not unheard of for mortals to blame it on someone else.
But blame is not a solution. Blame is a diversion. If it is your problem, how
are you going to fix it? Many times an attitude adjustment will fix it. Simply
by saying, "I’ll deal with it," and assuming the responsibility of that which
you find justly or unjustly has become ‘your problem’ and that by assuming the
responsibility for the problem, regardless of how it got there, you are
strengthened in your resolve to fix it, to follow through, to succeed, to forge
ahead, to seek satisfaction therein and a sense of accomplishment therefrom.
This is a part of the power of prayer.</P>
<P>Part of the power of prayer in approaching the problem allows you to give up
your own prejudicial attitudes by allowing them to be set aside. In prayer, it
is well to put forth your concerns but then to sit in silent receptivity to hear
that still, small voice, which will help to clarify what the problem is
precisely, if indeed there is a problem at all. Many fears are born of vain
imaginings, which can be dissolved in the light of divine love, but not all. Yet
by taking your problems to God in prayer, or to Jesus, or to Mary, or to Allah,
or to the Great Spirit, or to any number of icons of illustrious and divine
power, you subjugate your will and your "you" to that greater perspective that
will allow your biases and emotional boulders to be reduced to grains of sand
that can be swept away through the living waters, or by the breath of fresh air
that comes from turning over ones problems to that power, as you know from the
scriptures.</P>
<P>But you must have been industrious. And so the realm of philosophy does
indeed play a role in dealing with the mortal conundrums, thinking things
through and discussing these complexities of the mind is a way of sifting the
chaff from the wheat, filtering out that which does not serve, does not relate,
has no bearing, and focusing on the nugget of truth and value which remains.
That is the issue on which to focus, to seek solution, and this is what group
council is about. It is what world council would be about. It is what universe
council is about and it all takes time. All these matters are dealt with as a
part of time, as a part of the material worlds, and it takes place on all the
worlds throughout all the super universes. </P>
<P>There is no place in the material worlds that has not got one kind of problem
or other to deal with, one challenge or another on the table to look at and
reckon with. No matter how high you go on the scale of evolution, you will
always have this pattern of truth seeking and finding available to you. How you
could simplify your lives if you utilized this as a daily, hourly practice. What
is truly important? What truly matters? Granted, there are many things in the
life of every being that matters a great deal, but in terms of universe economy,
how important are they to the overall betterment of the individual, the
community, the country, and the cosmos? </P>
<P>Ultimately, it is discovered that no matter what your problems, you are all
"Under His Wing" and there is no problem too big that cannot be solved by and
through your relationship with the Divine. He sees you all, sees your struggles.
That God that lives within you often works with you, as you allow it to, and
rejoices to work with you more consciously than not. </P>
<P>The practice of consciously working with your divine Indweller gives you the
reassurance that you are not alone and, even when you are not supported by your
peers, you have that assurance of sonship which allows you to be confident of
yourself even when and as it is necessary for the bigger picture for you to
compromise or adapt to pursue the greater good, in league with those others who
would find the solution to the problems inherent in an evolving world.</P>
<P>Even while your problems here on Urantia are somewhat unique because of the
fact of your being a decimal planet and its peppered history, you are still
under the umbrella of all the universe powers and personalities which oversee
and nurture the growth of the universe, and so in the highest sense, you are and
we are under his wing. Knowing this, and knowing we have a choice, a choice to
be a conscious part of this process – forever – is, for many, enough to allow
individual preferences to be put aside in furtherance of that which benefits the
needs of the next step in the growth of the Supreme, the Ultimate and the
Almighty. </P>
<P>Had you any idea that any of these various vexations that you enjoy ascribing
to Murphy, had you any idea that Murphy is a natural instigator of the gods, you
might look differently at the opportunities offered to engage in successful
problem-solving instead of cursing Murphy, to say, "All right, Murphy. What do
you want me to see here? What am I to focus on? What am I overlooking? What do
you want to call to my attention? What am I to learn? In what way may I be of
service to the greater good by having to deal with this ‘rinky-dink’ mortal
vicissitude?" </P>
<P>It is too, too easy to toss Murphy over into the ‘devil made me do it’ pile,
and I urge you to take the tact that God is all there is, and therefore all that
is presented is presented for you to glean the truth of His being and discard
the rest. The rest, which may have appeared to be boulders in your path, become
beaten down, by your application and through prayer, beaten into sand –
whispering, shifting sand. </P>
<P>What a joy it is to come here at the Father’s table and feast with you and
drink of His cup, savoring the flavor of His wine and chewing on the food from
His garden, drawing strength, nourishment from the moment we spent together in
placid and joyous companionship, reinforcing with our very being, our divine
nature, and the nature of the universe. The order, harmony, clarity and peace
which prevails here in this moment and which is a respite from the vicissitudes
of the mortal existence, is available to you at any time in the stillness. And
yet, what a joy it is to share it in a group! And eventually this peace will
prevail throughout this planet, even throughout this universe. But now, fed and
refreshed, focused and filled with the joy of sonship, it is possible for us to
return to our rigors with renewed courage and resolve. Are there
questions?</P><B>
<P>A Decimal Planet</P>
<P>Men-O-Pah:</B> What is meant by "a decimal planet"?</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Yeah, I was curious about that, too.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> The idea of decimal planet is based on the structure of how the
universes are set up, that every tenth inhabited world is an experimental life
station. The other nine planets - those which are not a decimal planet – are
controlled; they have a pattern established that is not veered from, in terms of
possibility of moving away from the divine plan. This decimal planet has in it a
number of possible variables that may be undertaken as a result of the
flexibility that is allowed on a decimal planet to verge into "uncontrolled" or
"unstructured" byways. </P>
<P>The decimal planets have a great deal more liberty and latitude to make
mistakes, but the up side of such is that often they are able to bring about
certain discoveries, by accident if you will, that are then incorporated into
the construction of other controlled worlds. The unfortunate analogy that has
been given, and yet which is most readily understood, is that you are like a
laboratory experiment on decimal worlds, but be advised that even while these
life experimental stations such as Urantia are indeed able to ‘stretch the
envelope’ as you say, and which naturally provide for new and different cosmic
problem-solving situations, they cannot go <U>too</U> far. </P>
<P>That is to say: the acts of humanity, which are experimental, are never going
to be outside that realm which we called "under his wing." It will never be out
of control. It would <I>appear</I> to many that the world is out of control, but
it is not, and you may take comfort in that knowledge, for although there are
opportunities to go far afield of what one might expect to take place on a world
devised, designed and created by the divine Creator Sons of God, they are not
all this way. Nine-tenths of them are following an orderly path of progression.
</P>
<P>And while their path may, in many ways, be easier, they are not the
beneficiaries, as you are, of the tremendous education and actualizing that
comes from those of you who have, as agondonters, suffered through the many and
peculiar vagaries of life on a decimal planet. Nor have they had as much fun.
(Group giggles.) And so once again you can consider yourself fortunate for
having this unique experience, not only of being an ascending son but also of
being one who comes from a decimal world. </P>
<P>Does this help to clarify?</P><B>
<P>Men-O-Pah:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> I’m curious. Of the nearly three dozen planets affected by the
Lucifer Rebellion, how many … or were there an inordinate number of … decimal
planets were involved in that?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> There are not an inordinate number of decimal planets in that
cluster of worlds, which were "led astray and quarantined", no. </P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Interesting. It would almost seem like it would have been more
unlikely for a highly organized world to resist, but of course that’s perhaps an
unfair perspective. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> You are thinking of it from your perspective which, of course,
would be natural, about civilized behavior and uncivilized behavior, as if
comparing the middle class, suburban neighborhood with gang activity. While
there is some basis to the fact that a controlled environment has less trouble
than an environment which is allowed to experiment, those experiments are not
always unfortunate or productive of chaos, such as you see here on Urantia
today. </P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> Was the area that was quarantined restricted to a part of our
galaxy or was our galaxy simply a part of a larger area of quarantine, since
we're just one tiny speck of dust in a huge galaxy? I'm looking for
perspective.</P>
<P></P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Then let us look at it as if your fair city were to have a power
failure in one grid, and all the lights went out on your block and the next
block over, but the rest of the city was unaffected. Let us say that on your
block and the next block over, there are 36 homes, and of the 36 homes, 32 of
them are sedate, quiet, orderly, wholesome households where everyone is asleep,
unaware the power failure is going on until they wake up … late, in the morning,
to discover they are late for work and the coffee pot did not go on. (Chuckles)
… But those others who were of a different lifestyle, who perhaps were up
rabble-rousing late at night, doing odd jobs or various and sundry creative or
pleasureful activities were fully inconvenienced by the blackout and thus had to
scramble for ways to see in the dark.</P>
<P></P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> Is that us? </P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Agondonters. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> You are certainly scrambling in what you imagine to be the dark.
</P>
<P></P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Good analogy! That's great! </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> But if you would be patient and rest easy, in time the sun comes
up, the power will come on, and life proceeds as a natural course in the
universe -- if this helps convey how it is that other planets besides decimal
planets were involved in the rebellion. You yourself did not rebel. Nor did the
other planets. The rebellion was on a higher grid than human or humanoid.
</P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> Although it affected us. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Although you were all affected. And in order to assure that the
power failure did not connect and spread to other neighborhoods, it was simply
quarantined. And you may be assured that the controlled worlds may not even
notice they have been quarantined. They are plodding along, as usual, on their
natural course of evolution. The truth is you yourself would not be aware that
you had been under quarantine were it not for the Urantia Book that told you so.
And so, even here and now, as the quarantine is lifting, you have myriad
theories as to what this world is all about, how it relates to its cosmic
neighbors, where there are cosmic neighbors, ad infinitum. </P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> I think we’re seeing the light of the neighborhood and wondering
what happened. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> And you are also seeing the lights that were on before they went
out and your eyes are adjusting to the light. You had simply become accustomed
to sitting around in the dark. And this reflects on your theory, Thoroah, that
"we are remembering." </P>
<P></P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> I was just thinking about that. We’re trying to find our history
so that we can find out where we are. We can’t – I mean, it’s almost like our
history is as ambiguous as our future and that seems … as the kids would say,
"That’s not right." </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> It is important for those of you who are trying to attempting to
get your planet back on track from the Lucifer Rebellion and pick yourself up by
the bootstraps from the Adamic Default, that you should know as much as possible
about your planetary circumstances, so as to have an understanding of what went
on before, so that you can anticipate what might come after. For this enables
you to begin to focus on some of your fears and put them on the table to be
examined, so as to find individual, group, national and global solutions to the
many problems that your world has undergone – many of which are simply because
you are an experimental planet. </P>
<P>But the Rebellion and the Default were not part of the experiment. Those were
betrayals to Michael as well as betrayals to Urantia’s inhabitants. It was not
woven into the pattern of your potential here, your possibilities, that such a
thing automatically occur, but since it did occur, and due to the fact that you
are an experimental planet, it was allowed to run its course. </P>
<P>But I want you to take a look also at the greatness inherent in such a
decision, for obviously Michael and Nebadonia had designed their universe,
including Urantia, carefully and confidently, that it would and could survive
such a betrayal <B>if </B>one should come about. You are hardier, far hardier --
even with the increased physical debilities because of the default and the
plasma upstepping going awry -- than you give yourself credit for. This is why
we say, so many of us look at you and say, how proud we are of you. How amazed
we are. How astounding we find it that your courage and your conviction is so
great in the face of terrible vicissitudes. It is because it is inbred in you,
as sons and daughters of God, through Michael and Nebadonia as your universe
parents, implanted in you through the Life Carriers to withstand these kinds of
vicissitudes. </P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> We didn’t know any better.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> This is reason enough for pausing a moment with Rodan of
Alexandria to see his philosophy on problem solving. To say Urantia has no
problem is to be in total denial of the opportunities at hand. Perhaps you did
succeed because you didn’t know any better, and for this reason there are many
who still choose to remain ignorant of the truth, but it is only because of
their own fears and prejudices, otherwise they would run open arms into the
living love of the universe, and appreciate the adventures possible and the
accomplishments and actualities available, the riches inherent in your
potential, and the joy yours for the taking. </P>
<P>If you could but see how wealthy you are and how invaluable these little
peccadillo problems are that present themselves as irritations in your daily
life, you would regard them as pretty stones or seashells found along the path,
to admire, to study, and to cast aside as you make your way home to the Father.
</P>
<P>Allowing for the fact of the time constraints of the human existence, I will
close for the day, with your permission. Is there something compelling that
needs addressing before we go?</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Well, other than I am compelled to tell you what a wonderful
lesson this has been, and thank you.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> It was a great lesson, Tomas. Thanks for being with us
again.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> I have one little compelling … (group laughter) It may be
something for discussion at another time, but you talked about how the
vicissitudes, the problem solving goes on in all the worlds through evolution.
Are we talking material world, morontia world, mansion world? I’m curious what
world … what type of world you are based in. What are you operating out of
now?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> My world now, for this time period, is rather like residency. I am
"in residency" here; therefore, my circumstances, my architectural sphere if you
will, is somewhat like a university campus, as a good analogy, and accurate. And
I find my problems are related to my work, which is you. Not to say you are my
problems! </P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Of course not. (Group laughter)</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> But my problems are around how best to reach and teach you, so as
to bring forth from you that which is latent within you so that it may be
brought forth to your betterment and to the betterment of humanity and to the
glory of God. Those are tidy phrases to describe my problems, but that’s what my
assignment is and thus I work therein. I want to assure you that I have a higher
view, having had a great deal of experience in my many eons of existence, but
even so, my problems are as important to me to solve as yours are, and I am
vulnerable to being … back-sided?</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Blind-sided?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Blind-sided, by my desire to see what I <I>want</I> to see, rather
than what is. </P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> Um-hum.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> And this is one of the foibles, perhaps, of faith. For while I
want to have great faith in you, I don’t want to be foolish about that, either.
Nor do I want you to be foolish where it is not necessary. And, of course, I
certainly do not want to send you into a situation where you will be made a fool
of without having the appropriate "ammunition" and the ability to see what it is
you are going in there after, and in fact what you brought back with you when
you come back from your experiential learning. </P>
<P>For believe it! -- There is a tremendous responsibility in being a teacher in
this way, for as you prayed in your prayer, Elena, to have your hearts and minds
opened, it is my heartfelt prayer that what I transmit to you is as close to the
Voice of the Master as I can convey. He is my Teacher, and our Teacher, and yet
all of us are assigned these various and sundry roles to play throughout
eternity, so that we may be of service. </P>
<P>And when I am not sitting around pondering my problems as far as teaching
you, I am sharing these experiences with my peers in the Teacher Corps and in
this Melchizedekian University, that we might better understand the complexities
of such a life on such a planet, and thereby help to find ways in which to
direct your thoughts and feelings, so that we can all join together in solving
the problems of this world -- which are many! – without presuming to take on
more than we have been given or going far afield of the path we see before us.
Which is why I cannot get too cocky about my role as your Teacher, for I am
merely a step ahead of you, but learning, as you do, the art of living. </P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> I have a compelling metaphor.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Please share.</P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> Earlier you were talking about each of our problems being a shiny
stone – vicissitudes that we should simply look at and then discard. And I have
the feeling that many of us pick up our stones of vicissitudes and throw them in
the pack on our back and keep them and continue to walk around with an ever
heavier pack of vicissitudes and life problems and struggles and oh "Poor me"
this and "That happened" and I can see where your advice to look at them and
then discard them is very good advice.</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Yes. That’s good. I’m glad you mentioned that.</P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> Because we carry around a lot of extra baggage. Stones.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> That is certainly a liberated way to look at it, yes, and I
appreciate your metaphor. I would like to extend that further to say that there
are many who walk along the beach collecting these stones and shells and who
bring them home and put them on a shelf, where they somehow begin to represent
the vicissitude itself. And this, while no longer carrying it on the back, can
create a bit of a museum or an Akashic record of what experience you have had,
so as to share your findings with other young students and visitors. When they
come by with something they are carrying that they don’t know what to do with,
you can go to your shelf and point to your stone or your similar shell and
recall how you dealt with it, and thus help relieve them of the burden of having
to carry that albatross around their neck much farther. This is how it is that
experience serves. </P><B>
<P>Reneau:</B> Thank you, Tomas.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Yes, thanks.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Thank you all for your presence here today in this classroom and
for your listening ear, and for your help as students to enable my job as a
teacher to be more effective. Blessed be art thou, beloved children of God and
students of Tomas. Amen and farewell.</P><B>
<P>Group: </B>See you, Tomas. Thank you.</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>